Introduction to Gooey

Gooey is a lightweight, cross-platform GUI framework for building native-feeling applications with a single codebase. Written in pure C, Gooey provides a simple yet powerful API for creating beautiful user interfaces.

Customize your build of Gooey

If you're building from source you can enable/disable features in include/user_config.h.

#ifndef USER_CONFIG_H
#define USER_CONFIG_H

// DEBUG/PROD
#define PROJECT_BRANCH 1 // 0=debug 1=prod TODO

// MAX
#define MAX_TIMERS 100 /** Maximum number of timer objects. */
#define MAX_WIDGETS 100 /** Maximum number of widgets that can be added to a window. */
#define MAX_MENU_CHILDREN 10 /** Maximum number of menu children. */
#define MAX_RADIO_BUTTONS 10 /** Maximum number of radio buttons in a group. */
#define MAX_PLOT_COUNT 100 /** Maximum number of plots. */
#define MAX_TABS 50 /** Maximum number of tabs. */

// ENABLE/DISABLE WIDGETS
#define ENABLE_BUTTON 1
#define ENABLE_CANVAS 1
#define ENABLE_CHECKBOX 1
#define ENABLE_CTX_MENU 1 // TODO
#define ENABLE_DEBUG_OVERLAY 1
#define ENABLE_DROP_SURFACE 1
#define ENABLE_DROPDOWN 1
#define ENABLE_IMAGE 1
#define ENABLE_LABEL 1
#define ENABLE_LAYOUT 1
#define ENABLE_LIST 1
#define ENABLE_MENU 1
#define ENABLE_METER 1
#define ENABLE_PLOT 1
#define ENABLE_PROGRESSBAR 1
#define ENABLE_RADIOBUTTON 1
#define ENABLE_SLIDER 1
#define ENABLE_TABS 1
#define ENABLE_TEXTBOX 1

#endif

Installation

To get started with Gooey, download the latest release for your platform:

Linux

# For X11 systems:
wget https://github.com/GooeyUI/GooeyGUI/releases/download/v1.0.2/gooey_x11.tar.gz

# Extract archive
tar -xvzf gooey_x11.tar.gz

# move .so lib files into /usr/local/lib/

Windows

# Download the dlls from:
# https://github.com/GooeyUI/GooeyGUI/releases/download/v1.0.2/gooey_win32.zip

Quickstart

Here's a simple hello world example with a message box widget:

#include "gooey.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdbool.h>

bool state = false;
GooeyWindow *msgBox;

void messageBoxCallback(int option)
{
    LOG_INFO("MessageBox option: %d", option);
}

void onButtonClick()
{
    state = !state;
    GooeyWindow_MakeVisible(msgBox, state);
}

int main()
{
    Gooey_Init();

    GooeyWindow* win = GooeyWindow_Create("Hello World", 400, 300, true);

    msgBox = GooeyMessageBox_Create("Hello", "Welcome to Gooey!", MSGBOX_INFO, messageBoxCallback);

    GooeyMessageBox_Show(&msgBox);

    GooeyButton *btn = GooeyButton_Create("Click Me", 150, 100, 100, 40, onButtonClick);

    GooeyWindow_Run(2, win, msgBox);

    GooeyWindow_Cleanup(2, win, msgBox);

    return 0;
}

Architecture

Gooey follows a simple yet powerful architecture designed for performance and flexibility:

Component Hierarchy

The Gooey framework is built around these core components:

• Application - The main container that manages windows and global state
• Window - Top-level container that holds widgets and handles platform-specific rendering
• Widgets - UI elements like buttons, text inputs, and containers
• Canvas - Drawing surface for custom rendering

Widgets

Widgets are the building blocks of Gooey applications. All widgets share common properties and methods:

Common Widget Properties

Widget Types

Gooey provides several built-in widget types:

• Basic Controls: Button, Label, Checkbox, RadioButton, etc...
• Text Input: Textbox
• Containers: Layout, Tab, etc...
• Specialized: ProgressBar, Slider, Meter, etc...

// Example widget creation
GooeyButton* btn = GooeyButton_Create("Click Me", 10, 10, 100, 40);
GooeyLabel* lbl = GooeyLabel_Create("Hello world", 0.26f, 50, 50);

// Add to window
GooeyWindow_RegisterWidget(window, (void*)btn);
GooeyWindow_RegisterWidget(window, (void*)lbl);

Layout System

Gooey offers flexible layout options for responsive UI design:

Layout

Use layouts for responsive designs:

// Create a vertical layout
GooeyLayout* layout = GooeyLayout_Create(LAYOUT_VERTICAL, 10, 10, 400, 400);

// Add widget
GooeyLayout_AddChild(layout, widget);

// Build layout
GooeyLayout_Build(layout);
            

Alignment

Control widget positioning within their allocated space: